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North America’s first LTE Cat M1 modules launched by Telit

Four new LTE Cat M1 modules are to be launched for the U.S. and one LTE Cat NB1 for Europe at CTIA Super Mobility 2016, according to Telit.

The global IoT enabler, has unveiled a portfolio of five new LTE single-mode IoT modules, specifically: Two ME910* LTE UE Category M1 to cover major US mobile operators; two ME866* LTE UE Category M1 to cover major US mobile operators; and one NE866* LTE UE Category NB1 for the European market.

These IoT-optimised LTE modules are compliant with the newly approved Release 13 (R13) standard set by the 3GPP, a collaboration between groups of telecommunications associations empowered to guide the evolution of the mobile (cellular) technology industry globally. Products begin sampling later this year with commercial availability slated for early 2017, in full alignment with American operators’ current service launch timelines.

Cat M1 and NB1 standards were devised to address specific needs of IoT applications, offering optimised power consumption and enhanced coverage. The new LTE UE Category M1 modules offer peak downlink and uplink data rates of 1Mbps.

This generation of enhanced machine type communication (eMTC) products support power saving mode and extended discontinuous reception (EDRX), which together allow the module to wake up periodically, exchange small amounts of data with the network and return to sleep, providing for years of battery life. The NE866 is a 3GPP Release13 eMTC product capable of delivering long battery life of ten years or more while offering peak data rates of 250Kbps downlink and 20Kbps uplink.

The new portfolio is reportedly being fast-tracked to address the pressing need in the U.S. market for migration paths away from 2G as well as strong global demand from the industry for Cat M1 and NB1 modules to enable of a wide variety of brand new product concepts.

The ME910 modules are optimised in cost, size and power consumption to be applied as direct drop-in replacements in devices already designed for the GE910, CE910, UE910 and HE910. They are part of the popular xE910 form factor, the company’s most versatile and comprehensive product family and the only in the market to include the full range of cellular technologies (GPRS, UMTS, HSPA, CDMA, EV-DO and LTE CAT-x).

ME866 and NE866 modules are drop in replacements for 2G and 3G members of the 15mmx25mm and 15mmx19mm xE866 miniature IoT module family, ideal for devices with stringent size constraints. Dual-mode variants of the xE910 M1 family are planned for release in short succession to address regional requirements like GPRS fallback for Europe and Voice over LTE (VoLTE) for North America.

“Our customers and new IoT adopters already understand the different benefits Release 13 brings and are therefore looking for a complete portfolio of compliant modules, rather than a single product from module vendors claiming to be pioneering the new 3GPP standard.

For starters, the standard includes two branches: M1 and NB1. Then, when you add to that, the fact that the NB1 specification allows for three different deployment scenarios which are not directly compatible with one another, you start to see the multitude of possibilities,” said Mike Ueland, president of Telit Americas. “What all this means is that in order to ensure you retain the device deployment flexibility you enjoyed with LTE Cat 1, for example, we are announcing a broad portfolio of Cat M modules here today.”

Telit IoT Portal-ready modules, powered by deviceWISE, make device onboarding simple to program, maintain and scale. All of Telit’s M1 and NB1 modules are Telit IoT Portal-ready, supporting high-level commands specifically designed to provide quick and hassle-free onboarding of device and data to the cloud, customer apps, back-end systems and servers.

The new portfolio will be featured on the Telit booth #4832 at CTIA Super Mobility 2016, taking place at the Sands Expo, Las Vegas from September 7 – 9.

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